In the dim light of dusk, the world appears gray. That's because we, like most vertebrates, have just on type of rod opsin, the light-sensitive pigment in our eyes that lets us see in low light. During the day, a different set of pigments in cone cells pick up a broader range of wavelengths, giving us color vision.
Now, an international team of researchers has discovered that fish living in the dark depths of the oceans nearly a mile below the surface may use rod opsins — which grant ...read more
Long before Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928, people were using antibiotics to combat infections.
In the late 1800s, French physician Ernest Duchesne observed Arab stable boys treating sores with mold growing on saddles. Duchesne took a sample of the fungus, identified it as Penicillium and used it to cure guinea pigs infected with typhoid. Earlier still, texts from ancient civilizations, including Rome, Egypt and China, discussed the healing powers of moldy bread applied t ...read more
Our universe’s first galaxies shone hotter and brighter than scientists thought, according to a group of astronomers who tapped a whopping 400 hours of observing time on NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. The discovery could answer a long-standing question about how light first traveled freely through the infant universe.
“We did not expect that Spitzer, with a mirror no larger than a Hula-Hoop, would be capable of seeing galaxies so close to the dawn of time,&rdqu ...read more
The universe's first stars were extremely hot and incredibly large, often reaching hundreds of times the mass of the Sun. And because they formed just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, these boiling behemoths contained virtually no elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, which were the only materials readily available at the time. But due to their sizeable stature, the first stars also lived fast and died hard — lasting only a couple million years before they exploded ...read more
And the stew is now boiling more vigorously: Heavy precipitation events have grown stronger and more frequent over the long run
With big, boiling thunderstorms spewing hail and spawning tornadoes in the Southern Plains and beyond even as snow once again falls elsewhere, the weather sure does seem wild and weird this week.
Spring often brings a meteorological roller coaster ride, thanks to the tension between lingering cold and spreading warmth. And, in fact, ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine